Brad Hines has been hanging around Fort Worth for a long time now, hosting an open mic at the White Elephant Saloon, gigging wherever he can, and getting better however he can. His folk-based country has always been a quiet cut above.

Who We Are, his collaboration with co-producers Walt Wilkins and Tim Lorsch, is definitely non-Nashville. Instead of sparkling with superficial flash, the record is, at heart, a sparsely arranged and contemplative look at growing up.

The two main themes are nearly universal — redemption for a misspent youth and wanting a second chance at love.

Redemption begins with the first song, “Forever in His Debt,” in which Hines comes face to face with a lifestyle “full of speed and beer and close to death”; then continues with the Wilkins/Jamie Richards song “(Gambling with the) Privileges of Youth”; and concludes with “Hello It’s Me,” a prayer of gratitude for being washed clean and set free. There’s also “How It All Went Down,” a story of twisted love and murder.

The rest of the c.d. is about human love in several of its myriad forms — first found, first lost, fooled by its nearest relative (lust), committed to never letting it go. Two tracks are especially noteworthy: The title song is a sonically emotional guitar-and-fiddle tune about letting go in the hope of holding on, and “True Love” is a tiny, simple, upbeat duet with Bonnie Bishop in which Hines sounds a little like John Prine but deeper vocally.

The instrumentation is a mix of acoustic and electric in which even the electric feels acoustic because of the peaceful, contemplative nature of the well-crafted music. Who We Are deserves the same kind of listener. —